Shadows
by ExpressionThruArt
Summary: Within the light there is darkness within the darkness there is light, such a thing connects the world of light and shadow. Such darkness can lead us to forget what light there once was. With the shadows inside of our very hearts being controlled by strings of the silhouette magician. What happens when the light they've held on dear in their heart, turn against them?
1. Right After A Mission

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima**

* * *

The woods around the two mages were bursting with life and activity and yet neither of them were moving.

Lucy stared at the flaming fist that was just in front of her as the clouds passed over the sun, her body shaking in terror as she waited for the shadow it cast to pass. She heard one thing in that moment that brought her out of her shock. It was his voice. Natsu was telling her something. As he stood there, form shaking, flames burning, she heard two words come from his mouth in a frightened fury.

"Lucy, dodge!"

Three months ago, where our story begins, if anyone had said to Lucy Heartfilia that Natsu Dragneel would be attacking her, she would have looked at them like they didn't know what they were going on about, and then continued on to say that:

"Natsu is my nakama and my best friend, there is no way he would ever hurt me."

Similarly, if you had gone up to Natsu Dragneel gotten the fire mage's attention and told him that in three months' time he would be attacking Lucy, he would have gone from his bright bubbly self to someone you wouldn't want to mess with and asked if you were proposing a threat.

We start our story on a beautiful eve in the middle of summer on the 17th of July, exactly three months before the disaster waiting to happen.

Lucy had gotten back from a tiring mission with Natsu and all she had wanted to do was get a bath, and go to bed. Much simpler in Lucy's head, she caught herself dosing off quite a few times in the tub. After the seventh or twelfth time Lucy decided to finish up, not wanting to drown in her own bath tub after surviving such an exhausting mission.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow." Lucy winced as she moved her muscles. She had gone through one heck of a beating in the recent mission. Cuts and bruises bombarded her skin. She knew that the next few days would be agony.

Wrapping her white fluffy towel around herself, she stumbled out of the bathroom, and into the bedroom. Dropping the now soaked towel, Lucy changed into her summer pyjamas. The bottom half of her outfit only covered half of her creamy legs and was coloured a dark blue, where as her thin singlet- if one could actually call a piece of clothing that thin a singlet- was a soft baby blue.

Not bothering to pick up her towel, Lucy attempted to stumble over to her bed in a daze. Trying not to fall asleep when one was exhausted was a feat in itself.

Lucy finally reached her bed and threw back the covers that were once covering where she wanted to rest her aching and exhausted body. Deciding against actually trying to move her body, Lucy simply flopped down onto the bed. Imagine her surprise when she heard a groan come from her bed. It definitely hadn't come from her. Not paying much attention in her tired and dazed state, Lucy simply put her legs onto her bed, pulled what she could over herself and snuggled up to something warm.

No, not something, someone.

"Natsu..." Lucy half heartily groaned.

"Get out... of my... bed..." Lucy couldn't stay awake, the grasp of sleep was slowly pulling her into the dark abyss called slumber, and as she did so, the fire mage simply put a hand around her and pulled her close to him, breathing in her delicious vanilla and cinnamon scent, before he too succumbed to the darkness of sleep.

* * *

Lucy woke up to feel her eyelids as heavy as led. Groggily she tried to open them and registered an unnatural warmth across her stomach. Lucy tried to sit up but to no avail. Looking to her right, she saw Natsu. His arm slung over her stomach and his head close to snuggling her shoulder. The peaceful look on his face made Lucy smile. Carefully she moved his hand off her stomach, her muscles screamed in agony as she moved them. Lucy winced at the pain and Natsu groaned at the movement. Lucy felt a small smile tug at her face before her sleepy haze fell away and he realized who was in her bed and what he had been doing.

"NATSU GET OUT OF MY BED!" Lucy screamed at the fire mage, kicking him out of her bed, much to the protest of her aching muscles.

Natsu groaned as he rubbed his head after tumbling to the floor.

"Lucy, what was that for?" He asked groggily.

"Don't ask me that you idiot! You were in my bed!" Lucy screamed at him. Natsu looked up innocently in a half-asleep daze and oh, the look on his face made Lucy's heart thump a thousand miles an hour. Then he actually woke up and laughed his hearty laugh.

"Aww come on Luce, your bed's really warm and comfy." He said without a care in the world. Stripped of her daze, Lucy looked at Natsu for a second before her head drooped and let out an exhausted sigh. She decided to get off the topic of her bed, Lucy deciding to strike up a conversation about their most recent mission.

"The mission we chose was tiring wasn't it?" Lucy said before she remembered. They hadn't chosen anything. He had been the one to choose it and had grabbed her, running out of the guild before she could even question what kind of mission they were going on.

"You found it hard Luce? Maybe you need to train more." He said innocently, his signature grin appearing on his face as he finished his sentence.

Lucy stared at him in annoyance. It wasn't her fault she was physically weaker than him. She was a girl. Not to mention the boy had muscles. Serious muscles.

"Natsu... That last mission killed my muscles. I'm not as physically built up as you." Lucy said, a frown forming on her face.

"I know!" Natsu exclaimed suddenly, shocking Lucy. "We can go train today after breakfast!" He said, his signature grin appearing on his face. Lucy became fed up. All he ever did was, eat, sleep, train to get stronger and go on missions. Not to mention he taxed her of her rent money when he destroyed half the town in the process of completing said mission.

"You idiot! Get out of my house!" Lucy yelled, and once again to the screaming ache of her muscles, ignoring his protests she pushed Natsu out of her apartment and slammed the door in his face. Once she had done this, she faced her back to the door and slumped down, her muscles burning from the movement. Lucy knew that if he wanted to, he could stay right where he wanted to and her pushing and pulling wouldn't do a thing, he would just stand there until she was too tired to try to move him, or couldn't be bothered anymore. Lucy heard something along the lines of "Luce, you weirdo." Before she was sure Natsu had gone.

Sighing in relief, she limped shakily into her bedroom, her towel on the floor where she had left it the night before. Lucy cringed when she realised she had changed into her pyjamas with Natsu in the room. Grabbing her damp towel she put it into her pile of soiled clothes and grabbed another one before heading to her bathroom. She was sure a warm bath would relieve some of the aches and pains that bothered her body.

Running the tap, she made sure the water was warm before she got undressed and put up her hair so it wouldn't get wet. She quickly looked in the mirror and decided that today she would wash it. There was muck and grime in her hair from trekking through the woods on her last mission. She had to pay her rent though, even if she didn't want to go on another mission.

Especially with Natsu. Just the thought of the boy made her annoyed at the moment.

"No Lucy," She said to herself. "Don't drag him into your thoughts now. Right now is relaxing time and you can't do that with him in your mind." Turning off the running water, Lucy sank down into its depths, the warm water bringing relief to her aching muscles.

Lucy sat there for a bit before reaching for the soap next to her. Vanilla and cinnamon scented - her favourite. Lucy washed her body before paying attention to her hair. Letting her hair fall into the water, she dipped her head and laced her fingers through the strands of hair that covered her head; massaging her skull and boy, did it feel so good. Once she was satisfied with how soaked her hair was, she grabbed her shampoo and once again massaged it into her skull. The feel of her fingers on her scalp felt like heaven. The water around her keeping her warm, like Natsu kept her warm at night.

Snapping from her fingers massaging the shampoo into her hair, she realised she had just thought of Natsu. In the weirdest way too. No wonder he called her a weirdo. She was sure she absolutely hated it when he sneaked into her bed at night. But her thoughts not ten seconds ago contradicted that. Shaking her head and removing all thoughts, she went back to cleaning her hair. She rinsed out the shampoo that had settled into her hair. The water had lost some of its warmth. In five minutes or so it would be too cold for Lucy and so she decided to get out.

Lucy grabbed her fluffy white towel and dried herself off a bit before wrapping it around her body.

She grabbed the conditioner for her hair and ran her fingers through it; massaging the conditioner into her scalp and making sure it went from the roots to the tips of her blonde hair.

Walking out of her bathroom she walked to her wardrobe, deciding on clothes for the day. Like that was a problem, her wardrobe almost over flowed with clothes. She chose a blue and white top that ended at her waist, a blue skirt accompanied with a belt where she would hang her keys and her whip. After getting dressed she tied up her hair which was now dry and silky smooth into a side pigtail with a blue ribbon. She looked once more in the mirror, and smiled a bit. She really liked blue today; which was the opposite of red. A bit like water instead of fire. Huh, interesting.

She pulled on her boots at the door, locked it on her way out and started to make her way to the guild, ignoring the toned down pain in her muscles. Smiling at the bright sun and the blue sky, Lucy thought that today was a beautiful day and in being that was also going to be a good day

Oh boy was she wrong.


	2. The Guild and the Shadows

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima**

* * *

Lucy's eye twitched with irritation. Of course her day had to be ruined by _Natsu_. The dense idiot had been in a brawl with Gray and just as Lucy had come up to the doors of the guild, Gray had flown out of the doors giving Lucy no time to react as the boy landed on her and knocked her out, much to the dismay of Lucy.

Waking up wasn't too bad. Her eyes just needed to adjust to the light. Now sitting up was an entirely different story, as she sat up a huge headache suddenly appeared and she grabbed her head in pain. Then she heard Natsu speak beside her.

"Lucy, you okay?" He had asked concerned for her wellbeing, that and she was sure he probably felt guilty about knocking her out with Gray. Her head snapped towards him, much to her dismay, the headache didn't seem to like that and gave a pulse of pain in irritation to the fast movement.

"No, I'm not okay Natsu," She snapped, getting out of bed slowly so she didn't agitate her current headache.

"Lucy, you should really rest, you had a nasty fall." Natsu said. This wasn't the Natsu she knew. Wouldn't he normally just brush it off and pull her off towards a mission? Lucy sighed.

"I'm going to go down and get a glass of water." Lucy said. Natsu was about to protest, but Lucy beat him to it.

"I don't care what you say Natsu, I **will** be going down to get a glass of water and not you or anyone else can stop me." She finished. She was tough; she didn't need to stay in bed _that_ long. Well, not as tough as her dense partner, but tough enough. Still meant she didn't have to stay in bed!

Lucy walked from the infirmary with a worried and sulking boy following her. On her way down, Lucy thought about missions. Maybe she could do it by herself; an easy one, without Natsu to destroy any property. If she chose a quick easy one, she could get enough money to pay her rent for this month. A small smile appeared on her lips as she thought this.

She walked to the bar with a happier mood, even with her current headache, and Natsu followed but was caught up by Gray. This resulted in another fight between the two.

"Hey Mira." Lucy greeted. Mira was gorgeous. Her long white hair cascaded down her back as she wiped a glass with the beautiful smile that graced her face.

"Hello Lucy. How are you feeling? I'm guessing that knock to the head was pretty bad, you were out for three hours." Mira said, a worried expression appearing. Lucy's eye twitched with irritation. She had been in that room from eight-thirty in the morning until eleven-thirty, or as she liked to put it - now.

"I wouldn't have been knocked out if Natsu and Gray hadn't been in another fight." She said annoyance in her voice. She had lost three hours of her life due to some stupid fight. Yeah, that made up her mind; she was definitely going on a solo mission. After asking for a glass of water and gulping it down Lucy got up and headed to the mission board, which didn't go unnoticed by her partner who flashed over to her as she read all the missions. His bickering with Gray had probably subsided for a bit. The key word being 'probably'.

"Which mission are we doing Lucy?" He asked, a grin upon his face, the earlier gloom and guilt seemed to have disappeared, not a trace to be found. Lucy sighed.

"Not _we_ Natsu, _me_." She said, a small giggle escaping her lips as she realised she had made a rhyming sentence. She should become a writer. Oh _wait a second_, she **was** a writer. Man, if only the guild knew of this sarcastic side of her, but alas; it was not to be, her sarcastic side was for her literature, and her literature only… and for Levy who read her literature.

Natsu on the other hand, did not look impressed.

"But Lushi, we're partners. Aren't we supposed to go on missions together?" He asked, his whine turning into a question, his grin slowly turning into a pout. Lucy looked at him before replying.

"I need money Natsu. On the last couple of missions you've nearly depleted the reward money because of the damage you've done to the surrounding area. I _need_to pay my rent; otherwise I'll be kicked out." Lucy explained to him. Natsu was silent. A sad expression covered his face for a split second, and then he looked up at her giving her his signature smile and said happily:

"Sure Lucy! Just don't get hurt okay!" Then he ran off to pick a fight with Gray. Lucy felt slightly guilty about how what she had just said made him react. Really guilty. So, Lucy stared looking for a calm job that they could do together- much to her displeasure, he was probably manipulating her with his emotions, even though he was an accomplice for knocking her out. Sure he was a pain in the ass, but they were partners, they did nearly everything together, she shouldn't have been so harsh with him. So, instead of a solo mission, she looked for one that they could do together without fighting anyone.

After a little while, Lucy found a request that could be done.

_Needed:_

_Muscle for heavy- and some light- lifting._

_Request: _

_My men and I will be departing from Hargeon and need help lifting the crates we need onto the ship. _

_Reward: _

_150, 000 Jewels._

"Huh." Lucy said, staring at it. Maybe she could have a nice calm mission and bring Natsu along and be able to pay her rent. She wasn't sure Natsu would like the slow pace, but they would get a reward and at the moment, that was all that counted.

"Hey! Natsu! I think I found one we could work together on." She said, trying to make her voice sound light. At this, Natsu dropped Gray who shouted at him for 'abandoning the fight' and made his way over, waving Gray off as he did so.

"What did you say Lucy?" He asked when he got over. Sheesh, this guy called himself a dragon slayer? With _keen_ senses? Oh yeah, Lucy could believe that, when she had proof that his senses were actually _working_.

"This job, we could do it together. No fighting, just picking things up and moving them onto the boat." Lucy said, a smile appearing on her face. Natsu took one look at it before he said.

"...Lucy, did you forget that I have motion sickness?" Natsu asked a confused expression on his face.

"No, I was thinking Happy could fly you to and from the boat, that way you wouldn't get motion sick, and Happy would get a workout." Lucy said a smile still on her face. She was going to get that damn cat back if it was the last thing she did. She still remembered how her apartment had stunk of dead fish for weeks and in the end, the cat found it almost instantly. She was sure that cat had been hiding a smirk at the time. One more day with that dead fish and she would have probably moved away for a bit until the fish was found. Natsu laughed.

"I wonder why I didn't think of that!" He said. "Happy! Come check out this mission that Lucy found!" He yelled across the guild, interrupting Happy trying to charm Carla, with a fish. With one last look at the female Exceed, Happy made his way across the guild to Natsu and Lucy. Happy took one look at the mission before stating.

"But Lucy, Natsu has motion sickness; he won't be able to go onto the boat." Lucy simply smiled at the blue cat.

"That's why you're coming Happy, so you can lift Natsu from the ground to the boat so Natsu here doesn't get motion sick, and you can get a workout while you're at it." Lucy said, smiling if only a little evilly at the cat. Lucy wasn't sure what terms the cat and she were on, but she knew that when the cat said or did something slightly evil towards her, she would try as hard as she could to return the favour. Like how he was evil and hid a dead fish in her apartment, and like now where she was trying to get back at him.

"But Natsu, I won't be able to hold you and the box." Happy complained to his partner. Lucy held up a hand to her cheek and looked at Happy, the evil smirk returning to her face.

"Don't tell me you're _weak_ Happy." Lucy said with a slight evil tint to her voice. Happy looked at her then back to Natsu.

"Natsu, she's calling me weak." Happy nearly cried.

"Then this is where you can prove her wrong Happy." He said simply, another grin embracing his lips and showing his white teeth. Happy stared at Natsu before he hung his head in defeat. Mumbling something about how he wanted a fish.

Lucy: 1

Cat: 0

Yeah, this was going to be a good day, Lucy could feel it in her bones.

That was, until they reached Hargeon Port.

"H-how long did you say this was going to take?" Lucy asked looking at the hundreds of boxes stacked everywhere.

"Four to five hours. Depending on how much you do, how hard you push yourself." The man said. He had greedy eyes and yellow teeth. She could smell that he hadn't bathed for days and his clothes were slowly falling off his body as they disintegrated into shreds, and Lucy doubted his shoes had soles.

"Okay! Let's get to work!" Natsu shouted enthusiastically. For a job that didn't involve fighting, this was highly optimistic of him, but then again when was he upset at small things? As long as he was surrounded by the people he loved and cared for and as long as nothing was to hurt them, it seemed he would be happy. Lucy smiled upon realising this.

"Oi! Lady we have a job to do here!" The man with the yellow teeth shouted. Lucy was pulled back from her thoughts and replied just as enthusiastically as Natsu. As she was about to call out Taurus, she felt a gaze piercing into her back. The sailors around her had just started to haul the boxes onto the boat, so everyone around her was busy, but she looked behind her anyway, and sure enough there was a boy, whose gaze Lucy felt pierce her very being. A sailor walked in front of her and once he had passed the boy was no longer there.

A shiver climbed up Lucy's spine. She would have to deal with the boy later; she had to do a job.

Lucy pulled out her keys. Her friends the celestial spirits, she loved them all dearly.

"Open the door to the Golden Bull Palace, Taurus!" Lucy shouted, summoning her faithful -and somewhat perverted- spirit.

"Lucy! You have nice boobs as always. Moo-re amazing than ever!" Taurus said, staring at Lucy. She nearly considered asking another spirit to help out, but decided against it. If she were to last five hours, she would have to conserve her energy. She did consider calling out Virgo instead, but decided to leave it as she had already called out Taurus.

"Come on Taurus, help us with these boxes." Lucy said smiling as she picked up a box. It was a bit heavy and the weight made her sway a bit before she steadied herself and made her way towards the boat.

Though the thought of the boy never left Lucy's head. She felt like he was trouble and that trouble was going to finds them. Trouble always found them. Lucy sighed as she looked towards her team mate. She was going to hate the feeling of sighs as they passed her lips if she didn't stop soon.

"Come on Happy! We still have heaps of boxes to go! We're going to have to work hard if we're going to beat Lucy." Natsu called out too Happy as they put down another box onto the boat.

"Aye sir!" Happy replied, his mind now on the job.

"Beat me at what Natsu?" Lucy asked him, confused at what he thought he was going to beat her at.

"I'm going to get more boxes onto this boat than you." He said, his signature grin once more gracing his face. Lucy was stunned at first but then recovered; a competitive grin greeted her lips.

"You're on!" Lucy laughed as she ran with the box in her hands, Taurus right behind her with one of the heavier boxes. Natsu was always able to turn something as dull as this into something fun, and for that she was happy. She really did love having Natsu as her best friend.

* * *

While the two mages were laughing at the contest they had just put together. An eye watched over them, studying the strength the two mages had. The mage would need this information later on. He had a lot in plan for the two mages and oh boy; this was going to be _fun_.

* * *

**A/N: Though I promised myself that I would update this on the 21st of every month and have written in advance, some personal things came up and so I was unable to post the chapter until now.**

**So enjoy and I hope you continue to read~**


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